Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Bayonne upset league leaders Toulouse in Spain as they came out 19-13 winners in their Top 14 meeting in San Sebastien on Saturday. Toulouse managed to sneak a late bonus point though, which keeps them three points clear at the top of the table.

Vincent Clerc scored his sixth try of the season right at the end of the game, giving Toulouse something to smile about, despite the disappointing loss.

Bayonne wing Yoann Huget had earlier scored a try after intercepting a Yannick Jauzion pass, with France teammate Clerc having no price on catching him in that position. Benjamin Boyet converted, adding to his and Cedric Garcia’s earlier penalties, taking Bayonne into a 16-3 lead at the break.

Toulouse had their chances to get back into the game but had troubles with goal-kickers, trying out David Skrela and Frederic Michalak, then eventually settling on Nicolas Bezy.

Toulouse did play some excellent rugby, but failed to convert on their chances. Bayonne hung in for the win though, taking their opportunities and ultimately punishing the visitors, despite their late try that earned them the crucial losing bonus point.

There was some great play, so even though many points weren't scored, this is an enjoyable highlights video to watch. We'll have more from the Top 14 soon.

posted by GMC at
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17 Comments:

Great match in a great atmosphere. But i really wonder when the french clubs ligue and the FFR will work together in order to install a coherent calendar between Top14 matchs and Internationals encounters. french players nearly play 15 matches more than welsh, irish, and scottish.Furthermore, RFU works hand to hand with premiership clubs. time to change!

ps: still not convinced by Huget a tinternational level, clerc comes back well, michalak seems to have some gas actually

Bear in mind French clubs have deeper pockets than those of the home nations and thus bigger squads. They tend to rotate their squads and so even with more fixtures in the calendar it's doubtful that the individual players actually play more games.....

Seemed like an exciting few days in Top14 rugby. Perpignan running over Stade, Biarritz almost losing to Rochelle, Agen and Montpellier going down to the wire, and Bayonne showing Toulouse how it's done. Great stuff. Blink your eye and you're bound to miss something exciting in the Top14.

That was a beautiful intercept, too....though it looked like the referee put more effort into chasing Huget than Clerc did.

I didn't get to see any of the Toulouse match, so thanks for the post, RD!

Sorry but that was terrible. If Toulouse learnt to not try and score the perfect try everytime and just took the ball into contact, they would have won that match. In the end it provided an end to end rugby match. They only have themselves to blame with such poor attacking play

Skrela had some really good moments it seemed. Although the ball went to ground and forward quite a few times still seems like a very good match to watch.Love French cemmentary. Can't understand anything they say but they seem very passionate

Yeah well, to anon above, we Frenchies tend to convert every city's name into French, and therefore we actually call it "Saint Sébastien" or San Sébastien...

as for what Le Grand Fromage said about deep pockets (true) and turnover (not entirely true).. it always comes to wether clubs will use their best players (international players) as much as they can, or not. And, well...they do. as you've seen, all the Toulousains and Bayonnais (only Huget, it seems) who played against England were on the pitch today, and will be next saturday against Italy...

A study was made between Dusautoir (French Captain and Toulouse Captain) and McCaw: result is Dusautoir played an average of 25 games more than McCaw every year... and that's part of the reason why the French Squad SUCKS.

Other reasons are incoherent choices from Lièvremont, the lack of adaptation of Top 14 to international rugby, and obviously the fact that LNR (national Rugby league) and FFR (french rugby federation, in charge of the National squad) cannot work together, as LNR officials are SOBs who only try to fill their pockets.

I know you english speaking people tend to consider French rugby as rubbish, but I can assure you if all those problems were less important, we would be a very good side!!

French rugby must do a revolution between the clubs and the federation, because french international players play too much with their clubs Consequences? Injuries, tiredness and sometimes a lack of cohesion between the international players.

Solutions? revise the calendar, reduce the number of teams (12 teams?) and install real times of preparation for les bleus.If it may won't be ok for the next rwc, the next manager of les bleus (st andre, galthié?) must discuss with every clubs and have full-powers. Problem, france doesn't like monarchy system ;)